Asking good landlords about charges to tenants deposit

OP

Cedar Park, TX · Member since 2017 · 14 posts · 7 votes

@fred heller what do you think sir?

Steve RozenbergPro Member

Specialist · Houston, TX · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes

You may want to ask for their policy and procedures manual to understand what their standard operating practices are. Also I would like to see what their standards are, next time you rent it is important to ask and see this prior to moving in so that the expecatations are the same on both sides so that there is less confusion

Thomas S.

Member since 2016 · 13k+ posts · 12k+ votes

I would demand full return of your entire deposit. Have your lawyer send the letter indicating you will be taking them to court based on principal alone if they do not comply. Yes it will cost you money for the lawyer but if you get your deposit back your satisfaction will be worth the cost. Dirt bag landlords need to be treated as they treat others.

If the threat does not work walk away.

Levi T.Pro Member

Rental Property Investor · Tucson AZ / Nice FR / Washington DC · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes

Originally posted by @Tiffany Evors:

My husband and I moved out of our leased home a few weeks ago. We always kept the place extremely neat & clean the entire 13 months we lived there. We actually own and operate a high-end luxury home cleaning business.

We hired professional cleaners upon move-out & also had the carpets professionally cleaned at 6 months living there and again upon move-out and used proper chemicals and a professional power washer to clean any oil stains from the driveway we may have caused with our old work vehicle.
Our landlord charged us the following odd, ridiculous charges:

$3.33 To empty out the ice from the freezer ice maker
$1.08 To screw a lightbulb in the bathroom vanity
$30.00 To remove a nice black metal paper towel holder we had put in the kitchen cabinet
$6.67 To fill and paint a tiny minuscule hole barely visible to the naked eye in the kitchen pantry door
$3.00 For a smoke detector battery
$3.33 To remove a small piece of duct tape from a wall switch in the kitchen we had placed there because every time someone flipped the switch accidentally it would turn the dishwasher off. Most people thought it was a light switch or even the garbage disposal switch.
$13.33 To unscrew a small bottle opener and supposedly repairing the two little holes.
$20.00 To repair a cracked microwave exhaust cover, which was actually already cracked when we moved in, but we didn’t catch it early enough to get it on our move-in walk-through report unfortunately.
$6.67 To remove the piece of duct tape and residue over the crack of the microwave exhaust cover we had placed.
$3.33 To put a smoke detector back on the ceiling (We had finally removed it because no matter how many times we replaced the battery, we finally realized it was broken, we could never get it to stop the constant annoying chirping, And we forgot to put it back up before leaving)
And the most ridiculous one of all…
$20.00 To take our 2 trash cans to the curb along with the some extra bags of trash and old empty cardboard boxes. We came back to do it the day after moving out, the night before trash day, and they had already done it which she said was no problem they didn't mind, and then we got this charge! We didn't take them to the curb the day we moved because it is against HOA rules and we didn't want our landlord to receive a fine. Unbelievable!!!

There are numerous other small nickel and dime type dumb charges, totaling to $265.46, which the landlord took out of our deposit. We have never in all of our years of leasing nice homes, seen something like this. We are dream tenets every landlord wishes they could have… We treat the home with excellent care, keep it very clean, don’t damage the property and return it in awesome condition, which is why we have impeccable references both personal and professional and an absolutely excellent rental history. We pay our rent every month, don’t cause any problems with the neighbors or for our landlord and we have always received our full deposit back upon moving out. We are dumbfounded and wondering if we should just accept this or what we should do, if anything.

Professionals, please advise! Thank you,
The Evors
Austin, TX

Based on your omission of guilt for a few items above, I'd let it ride, that's cheap frankly. It's likely a vendor did all this work for $265.46, or there about, and they just itemized the lump-sum price from the vendor. You admitted you installed a "black metal paper towel", your not allowed to modify properties as a tenant. Once gain "smoke detector back on the ceiling", your omitted that you removed it, no one puts back or installs smoke detectors for $3.33, more like $75-100 for labor. Once more the bottle opener is a modification, if it was attached to the cabinets, he could have charged you to replace the cabinet and not just patched the holes.. The cracked microwave exhaust.. sucks, but you likely had 30 days or less to report it in writing per the law, like it or not, your out of luck, and once again labor alone would have been another $75+ hit. That's why I say he likely got a lump sum bill from the vendor, and just itemized it per the state law. If you think otherwise, go file a Warrant in Debt and let a judge decide, just remember, you would have to tell the judge what you said here, otherwise you would be committing perjury if you made other claims... if you lose you could owe attorney fees, which will be must higher than $265.46..

Sam Shueh

Real Estate Agent · Cupertino, CA · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 1k+ votes

I will move on with my life and let these people nickel and dime next victim.

In all fairness the total charges on tasks involved is reasonable. Smoke detector battery costs more $3 these days. The triggering point is trash. You should take them with you not leaving them. Majority people say they will and never return so you know next time. I have home buyers calling me complaining about trash left in front of the home by sellers often. Some even leave couch, TV on the curb thinking someone will take them away instead of hauling away.

The apartment manager can charge a lot more for some of the items but not necessarily get to such details.

Max T.

Investor · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2015 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes

Many of these seem onerous. But I do charge for missing bulbs and smoke detectors and holes. Those are the items, as well as vinyl blinds, that are my most common deductions. When a tenant lets me know that they will be moving, I do a walk-through and let them know about as many of the damages upfront as possible so that they have a chance to fix them before they leave.

Christopher Shawn eady

Atlanta, GA · Member since 2017 · 151 posts · 11 votes

No offense! But I charge 10.00 to replace a bulb! And the other things he charged u ! My bill would have been about 450/500 for the metrical to fix it and labor total! so he seem fair and cheaper than I would have charged u!

Daniel Y.

Investor · Henderson, NV · Member since 2016 · 227 posts · 86 votes

Originally posted by @Tiffany Evors:

My husband and I moved out of our leased home a few weeks ago. We always kept the place extremely neat & clean the entire 13 months we lived there. We actually own and operate a high-end luxury home cleaning business.

We hired professional cleaners upon move-out & also had the carpets professionally cleaned at 6 months living there and again upon move-out and used proper chemicals and a professional power washer to clean any oil stains from the driveway we may have caused with our old work vehicle.
Our landlord charged us the following odd, ridiculous charges:

$3.33 To empty out the ice from the freezer ice maker
$1.08 To screw a lightbulb in the bathroom vanity
$30.00 To remove a nice black metal paper towel holder we had put in the kitchen cabinet
$6.67 To fill and paint a tiny minuscule hole barely visible to the naked eye in the kitchen pantry door
$3.00 For a smoke detector battery
$3.33 To remove a small piece of duct tape from a wall switch in the kitchen we had placed there because every time someone flipped the switch accidentally it would turn the dishwasher off. Most people thought it was a light switch or even the garbage disposal switch.
$13.33 To unscrew a small bottle opener and supposedly repairing the two little holes.
$20.00 To repair a cracked microwave exhaust cover, which was actually already cracked when we moved in, but we didn’t catch it early enough to get it on our move-in walk-through report unfortunately.
$6.67 To remove the piece of duct tape and residue over the crack of the microwave exhaust cover we had placed.
$3.33 To put a smoke detector back on the ceiling (We had finally removed it because no matter how many times we replaced the battery, we finally realized it was broken, we could never get it to stop the constant annoying chirping, And we forgot to put it back up before leaving)
And the most ridiculous one of all…
$20.00 To take our 2 trash cans to the curb along with the some extra bags of trash and old empty cardboard boxes. We came back to do it the day after moving out, the night before trash day, and they had already done it which she said was no problem they didn't mind, and then we got this charge! We didn't take them to the curb the day we moved because it is against HOA rules and we didn't want our landlord to receive a fine. Unbelievable!!!

There are numerous other small nickel and dime type dumb charges, totaling to $265.46, which the landlord took out of our deposit. We have never in all of our years of leasing nice homes, seen something like this. We are dream tenets every landlord wishes they could have… We treat the home with excellent care, keep it very clean, don’t damage the property and return it in awesome condition, which is why we have impeccable references both personal and professional and an absolutely excellent rental history. We pay our rent every month, don’t cause any problems with the neighbors or for our landlord and we have always received our full deposit back upon moving out. We are dumbfounded and wondering if we should just accept this or what we should do, if anything.

Professionals, please advise! Thank you,
The Evors
Austin, TX

That is very unfortunate, and we are sorry to hear about that situation. Most people here are landlord, however we are siding with you from the comments you've seen previously.

I'm just curious, for my personal research, is the landlord local or do they live far away? Are they self managed or do you have a PM? Do you happen to know if they own just this property, a small handful properties, or 7+ properties?

Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions. Again, hopefully the next landlord would be much better for you.

Matthew Paul

Severna Park, MD · Member since 2013 · 7k+ posts · 7k+ votes

If the landlord called my company to go over and do all that , even though nothing sounds difficult , it would have been over $ 400 between time and materials . I think it was rather cheap

OP

Cedar Park, TX · Member since 2017 · 14 posts · 7 votes

Yes, we did fill out an initial walk-through report, I believe we had one week or 10 days to tell them anything we found wrong with the home. The walk-through report lists all of the dirtiness found in the home, we rented a dirty home unfortunately because the landlord and his wife had a friend clean it before hand because they were out of town, and it took me almost an entire day to clean the home before we could even really move in. This is in writing and the landlord‘s wife even admitted and apologized for the home being dirty and us havingTo clean it. As someone owning a cleaning company that does make readies, I can tell you we would’ve charged between $150 and $200 to do the needed cleaning on the home to have it ready for occupants.

OP

Cedar Park, TX · Member since 2017 · 14 posts · 7 votes

Yes, the landlord and his wife manage their own properties, they own a few properties here and in another state or two. No they do not have any property managers or vendors helping them, he always does any needed repairs himself which is unfortunate, because he is a retired college professor who does not know how to do most repairs properly or quickly. My husband has been an expert in construction for over two decades and cannot believe how ineffective the landlord does repairs on his homes, and how long it takes him, it’s ridiculous. And no to answer the gentleman’s question about a vendor giving him an itemized bill, There was no billing because the landlord did all of the work himself.

OP

Cedar Park, TX · Member since 2017 · 14 posts · 7 votes

Mr. Steve Rosenberg, This was a very nice home we were renting in a nice HOA neighborhood, the landlord has a few properties but he does not have any procedures and policies manual. We were extremely good tenants and have always received a 100 percent back on our lease deposits in the over a dozen homes we have rented over the years. Perhaps you were thinking we lived in an apartment?

OP

Cedar Park, TX · Member since 2017 · 14 posts · 7 votes

Me. Sam Shueh, Sir, I don’t think you’re understanding correctly the situation with the trash. We did communicate with the landlord, we told his wife we would be coming back to finish a few details which she said was absolutely fine. We told her there was trash we would be taking out, as well as a few items still left in the garage and we made an appointment with her for the walk-through. She said all of that was fine. When we showed up for the walk-through, she had already taken the trash from the backyard. We were unable to put it at the curb because it is against HOA rules to leave it at the curb before a certain time the night before trash day. We moved out two days before trash day. So, for some strange reason they decided to handle this themselves and charge us $20 when we had a verbal agreement to come back and take the trash to the curb when we came for the walk-through, it is truly not our fault that they decided to do this on their own.

Christopher Shawn eady

Atlanta, GA · Member since 2017 · 151 posts · 11 votes

If he had no policies or anything in his lease or checklist than that changes everything ! you two had 30 days to appeal and if he just took it out of your security deposit! he can’t do that unless he has to give u a itemized bill and ask if you what it taking out of your deposit or dispute these charges or fix them yourself!

Christopher Shawn eady

Atlanta, GA · Member since 2017 · 151 posts · 11 votes

In future, even when talk to landlord on phone always send a e mail per our conversation and what u both agreed to do in writing for proof! That way u have proof what was said ! what y’all were willing do! And when charges came in call and send them the email where y’all talked about the details of what y’all were doing inthe email!

OP

Cedar Park, TX · Member since 2017 · 14 posts · 7 votes

Mr. Levi T. Sir I believe you misunderstood regarding the smoke detector… We did not remove it from the ceiling completely. We only unscrewed the top part, and forget forgot to screw that back on. Would’ve taken us 30 seconds maximum. I believe you were thinking we had actually removed the entire mechanism from the wall. Also, I believe very much in the importance of smoke detectors for fire protection and the only way I was OK with us removing it is because less than 2 feet away there was another working smoke detector already installed.

OP

Cedar Park, TX · Member since 2017 · 14 posts · 7 votes

Mr. Christopher Shawn Eady, Yes, my husband has been in construction for over 20 years and could’ve easily made any of these minor tiny repairs quickly and cheaply. That is why when we did the walk-through with the landlord‘s wife we asked her if there was anything at all that she saw needed attention so that we could handle it right away, and she said no, everything was just fine for turning the house over and getting our deposit back. We then tried to call her husband because he had been out of town at the time of the walk-through, to double-check on this, I emailed both of them a couple of times, text them both and left phone voicemail messages for both of them, with no response whatsoever. Finally, my husband called from a different phone number the landlord did not recognize and Bob answered. My husband asked him if there was anything at all in the house that he saw needed attention or was overlooked during the initial walk-through the day after move out with his wife, so that we could fix it immediately rather than have it removed from our deposit, but he refused us the opportunity. He was very abrupt verging on rude and said he would send us an itemize list and that was that.